


moving forward

by SmoshArrowverseFan



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, F/F, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:48:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24428269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmoshArrowverseFan/pseuds/SmoshArrowverseFan
Summary: Emily deals with the aftermath of her night on the mountain. Maybe, despite all of the bullshit, some good can come out of it too. Maybe.
Relationships: Emily Davis & Matt Taylor (Until Dawn), Emily Davis & Sam Giddings, Emily Davis/Jessica Riley (Until Dawn), Jessica Riley & Matt Taylor (Until Dawn)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	moving forward

**Author's Note:**

> i started this last summer i think? and i just decided to finish it today. i might continue this? idk i'm in an until dawn mood, who knows when it'll strike again.

Emily sits slumped into a chair. Her shin has been bandaged, her cuts have been cleaned, and now she just wants to go home, take a shower, and not leave her room for the next month. Instead, she’s stuck in the lobby of the police station with people who she doesn’t even want to look at. Apparently they’re only free to go once the last of them have been interviewed, and that can’t come soon enough. She feels like everyone’s watching her, but at the same time, nobody is. She isn’t sure which she’d prefer.

Emily had been one of the first to be interviewed, since her injuries weren’t severe enough to warrant extra attention. That also meant that she’d been sitting in the lobby for much longer than she liked.

Five seats down, Ashley and Chris are leaning into each other. Chris’s eyes are closed, and he’s probably sleeping, but Ashley’s are wide open. Across from them, Mike is leaning forward, cradling his hand. Emily hasn’t seen him move since he sat down. Two seats apart from him, Sam is leaned back. She hasn’t made eye contact with anyone in the room.

Matt paces the length of the room. He’s been doing that since his interview ended, which was fifteen minutes ago, and it’s getting on Emily’s nerves.

“Matt. Stop,” Emily speaks up, breaking the heavy silence. Matt pauses mid-step, and it would have been comical if it weren’t for the current situation. He nods apologetically.

“Right, sorry,” He practically collapses into a seat close to Sam and avoids meeting Emily’s gaze.

The door creaks open, and all eyes turn to see Jess, leaning on one of the police officers. Immediately, both Mike and Matt are back on their feet and rushing toward her. Emily remains frozen in her seat.

Her first thought is that Jess looks like hell. Probably feels like hell too, judging by the way she’s limping. A pang of concern hits Emily suddenly, but she might as well be locked in her seat. Jess already has all the help she needs, propped up in between Mike and Matt. Her ex and her… well, after the night they’ve had, Matt’s probably her ex, too. Emily thinks she ought to feel sadder about that, but she isn’t. She’s more numb than anything. Maybe it’s shock.

“You kids are free to go. Thanks for your cooperation, we’ll be in touch if we need any further information from you. If you need to make a call, feel free to ask,” The officer says before leaving the room.

“Shit, Jess, I’m so sorry, I tried to get to you, I swear I did,” Mike’s rambling, a habit that always got on Emily’s nerves when they were together. Jess says nothing, just clings to his shirt with one hand and Matt’s jacket with the other.

“I think we can go now, alright? We’ll get you to Mike’s truck, and then he can drive you home, does that sound okay?” Matt asks, his tone much softer and less frantic than Mike’s.

Jess shifts slightly. “Could you come too, Matt?” She speaks for the first time, and her voice is hoarse and small and sounds so unlike the Jessica who Emily had been trading insults with hours before. Then again, Emily doesn’t feel like the same Emily, either.

Matt glances back to look at her for approval. She gives him a look that says ‘do what you want’, and Matt nods, grimacing, before turning to look back at Jess. “Alright. We’ll just take it slow, alright?”

Mike, Matt, and Jess maneuver themselves out of the police station, and as soon as they’re gone, Ashley and Chris stand up. Maybe Chris hadn’t been sleeping, after all.

“We’re, uh, gonna head home. See you guys,” Chris says, his voice hollow. Neither Sam nor Emily acknowledge him. Emily’s eyes follow them out the door. It swings shut after them.

Emily glances at Sam, who still has that same vacant expression on her face. Em clears her throat.

“Do you need a ride?” She asks. Sam’s just about the only person who she’d be willing to give a ride to, after everything. Sam finally glances up, but her expression is unchanging.

“My mom’s gonna be here soon. But thanks, Em.”

Emily nods sharply. “Yeah. Night, then.”

“Night.”

Emily pushes the door open and steps into the parking lot. The chill of the early morning air hits her and suddenly, she wishes Sam had taken her up on her offer. She doesn’t really love the idea of being alone right now. Plus, her mom’s away on a business trip for the next two weeks. Damn it. There goes any possibility of her getting any sleep. The last thing she felt like doing was sleeping alone in an empty house.

She sees her car parked next to Jess’s. Of course. Emily sighs, pulling out her keys and unlocking the door. Thankfully, they’d been in her jacket pocket and not in her luggage. Everything else she’d brought with her was nothing but ashes now. That was a shame, she’d brought some pretty expensive clothes with her. She’d wanted to look as good as possible to show Mike and Jess how good she was doing without them. It feels so silly now. At least she’s alive. She almost died ten times over. They all had. And some of them hadn’t been so lucky.

The drive home is painfully long. There’s no way she’s stopping- the only places she’s seen are shady ass motels, and she hasn’t fallen that far- but she’s on edge and tired and hurt, and she just wants to be in her own home already.

It only takes her two hours to get back home, but at that point, she’s practically falling asleep at the wheel. Wouldn’t that be stupid? If she survived the night of monsters and pranks and nearly falling off of cliffs, only to crash her car on the way home? She lets out a sharp laugh at that as she’s pulling into the driveway and killing the engine. She takes a step out of the car, her legs stiff, and trudges to the door. The sun’s up by now. Across the street, kids are playing happily, like she hadn’t almost died several times over, like her friends hadn’t almost let her, hadn’t almost killed her themselves.

She turns the key in the lock and pushes the door open. The house is oppressively silent, as usual. Emily closes the door behind her and locks it. She takes a step into the house, before turning back and double checking that the door is actually locked. Can’t be too safe.

Emily steps into the kitchen, dropping the keys onto the counter. She flips on the light switch and looks around. The house looks exactly as she left it less than a day before, but it feels different somehow. It’s unnerving, so she doesn’t want to think about it. Emily Davis doesn’t do “unnerved”. Emily Davis does confident, and witty, and biting, but then again, until last night, Emily Davis didn’t nearly get killed by monsters. So maybe she feels different, not the kitchen.

She leaves the kitchen.

She climbs the stairs slowly, nearly flinching at every creak it makes. Of course she’s jumpy. It only makes sense, after the night she had. If Matt were here and not god knows where with Jessica, he’d tell her that she’d be back to her normal self by the next morning. But while Emily Davis is many things, she’s no idiot. She knows that she’s far from fine. They all are. The morbid thoughts, double checking the door, flinching at loud noises… that’s not just going away. God, is she going to have to get her mom to pay for therapy? She probably could’ve used it years ago, but her mom was averse to therapists after she’d had a bad experience with one in her twenties. Fighting her mom on this one would be tough, but her mom really couldn’t deny her this time. Complain ceaselessly, sure. But not deny. Not this time.

Emily makes it to her room and sheds her clothes immediately. She thinks she might burn them. She never wants to see them again. She changes into a pair of pajamas she’d almost packed for the trip but discarded in favor of an extra jacket. She sinks into her bed, exhausted, but despite that, her eyes remain open, fixated on her ceiling. She lays like that for a moment, before sitting back up, realizing what’s missing. Emily heads to her closet and rummages behind a wall of shoeboxes, before pulling out what she’s looking for. She holds the softball bat up triumphantly, momentarily thankful that Jess convinced her to try out softball in seventh grade, before the confusing feelings that she now associates with Jess surfaced. She shakes her head, as if to rid her head of all thoughts of Jess. She brings the bat back to bed with her, laying it on the pillow and climbing in next to it. Her fingers wrap around it firmly, and soon after that, she drifts off to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!! as always, kudos and comments are much appreciated. have a good one :)


End file.
